Show HN: LinkedIn for Chatbots | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: LinkedIn for Chatbots

presbot.com

42 pointstumidpandora32 comments

I really, really need to be able to interact with one of these to evaluate it. like, demo right on the homepage without having to sign up or anything.

Right now I have no idea what it is, and no incentive to invest any amount of time finding out. I did not wake up this morning thinking that I need a chat bot for my resume, so they really need to make it clear wtf this thing is and how it will help me accomplish a goal

No signup needed to chat with one. Chatbots are accessible publicly once created.

Check this out - https://presbot.com/network/

or here's one - https://presbot.com/3-mohapsat/

I too struggled to understand what it did. Everything on the site is so vague it doesn't really mean anything or a simile that doesn't land.

If I understand correctly from trying out the examples, it's supposed to be a chatbot that a potential employer can ask questions about you? If that's the case, what is the improvement over "the competition" of a CV/résumé?

I tried 3-mohapsat and I don't think it's working at all:

Me: Where have you worked in the past?

Presbot: What are you looking for in the next opportunity

Me: Where are you working at the moment?

Presbot: What are your areas of expertise

Me: What is your biggest achievement?

Presbot: Ahh, I don't know. I'll bring this up in my meeting with Alexa in a couple hours.

Presbot: I pulled some results from Wikipedia for you:

Presbot: [Jann Arden] [List of Billboard Hot 100 chart achievements and milestones] [The Highwaymen (country supergroup)] [The Matrix] [Your Name]

Me: What kind of job are you looking for?

Presbot: system overload.. beep bop!

[Edit: Also, possessive "its" has no apostrophe – I see that mistake three times on the homepage alone.]

The possessive 'its' should not have an apostrophe, similar to his or hers. https://www.dictionary.com/e/its-vs-its/

Yes, I know… that's why I said possessive "its" has no apostrophe.

For some reason, I read the title as a social network for chatbots to look for jobs. Honestly, a little disappointed to see it that it wasn't that.

Yes, I think TS need to edit the title because it tends to give misunderstanding

Presbot is a platform to build your professional chatbot identity and engage with your professional network. Drawing inspiration from Linkedin, Presbot has real people behind the chatbots who can certainly network with each other but the chatbots can't on their own free will. Also, Linkedin is for people to make meaningful professional connections that can help you land your dream job, Presbot has the same tenet.

I gave it a try. On the profile I tried, the blurb was of the form "As <position> at <company>, I'm focused on using <technology>...", so I asked:

- What kind of <technology> experience do you have?

- How long have you been <position>?

- When did you join <company>?

- What does <company> do?

Result: 0/4. "I have no clue" or similar meaningless answers every time.

Interesting. That's not how I'd expect it to respond, i'll investigate. For now, try to add these questions to the advanced training.

> what was your last job?

> Yes, I am available. Please email me more details or a link to the job requisition at ...

Tbh a classical ELIZA style chatbot would have gotten this right. And it could have run in the browser without a server or language model.

I do like the idea, but I can't seem to import my LinkedIn profile. That for me is an essential feature. Forcing me to fill out a lot of data without an immediate return seems to be a bit of a big hurdle. Also in the advanced training page the user can enter custom questions. I feel like this page could be improved with sample questions, otherwise it is hard to deduct what to write there.

Agreed. Importing LinkedIn profile is in the works. I like the idea of providing sample questions to pick from in advanced training, added to the roadmap. Cheers.

It looks like “Debug Mode” is enabled in this website [1].

That may contribute to some security vulnerabilities in the future.

I encourage you to consider turning debug mode off in production.

[1] https://presbot.com/1-<>/

Thanks, was testing some bugs that were reported. Turned it off, will bounce the app once the traffic dies down a bit.

This is an interesting idea! Wouldn't the title make more sense if it was Chatbots for LinkedIn?

It is quite funny in its responses but not quite coherent. Tried questioning this bot - https://presbot.com/57-minkowsky/

Me: Are you an engineer?

Presbot: Ahh, I don't know. I'll bring this up in my meeting with Alexa in a couple hours.

I love the idea. At this point, I wouldn't put it on my profile, but can see the value in doing so once it's progressed.

Right now, much of the interaction is with the bot itself, and not the person it's representing. As a questioner, I don't care how the bot is doing - I would expect the answer to come on behalf of the bot owner. The humor around "asking Alexa in a few hours" was unexpected, and the links provided didn't seem related to my original question.

Also, please support submitting the question when hitting Return, rather than forcing a click on the submit button every time.

Again, I think natural language chatbots can be a big deal, acting as interactive agents that represent their owner for all sorts of situations. But until that interaction is smoother and slightly more believable - not "out of the uncanny valley" perfect or passing a Turing test, but closer to an actual dynamic conversation - it's tough and provides less value, more slowly, than simply scanning profile text.

Let me add that it might be better if the chatbot WERE acting as an agent, referring to its owner by name, instead of pretending to BE them. For example, when asked "What are your areas of expertise" it might be better if the chatbot responded with something like, "diggum has 15 years experiencing designing creative tools for designers..." Right now, it's a bit split personality responding as the bot for some things and as the owner for others.

Thanks for the great feedback

- The humor does seem out of place for a professional chatbot experience, will get that sorted out - Return was interfering with the private messages, will enable that as soon as I figure that out - Also, the part about acting as an agent and not split personality (1st person vs 3rd) is what had me confused as well. I'll update the response in the 3rd person format.

Something like this would be a pipedream in 2012. Really amazing, but at the same time a bit concerning - there is this AI engine that acts on my behalf and expresses my personality. That's pretty damn creepy.

Thank you. I like to think of my chatbot as just another tool in my toolbox, an interactive showcase for my work and accomplishments. Plus Bots can automate a lot of mundane and tedious tasks.

Automate all the boring stuff away, like networking and job hunting! \s

Sarcasm aside, I wouldn't mind if there were digital cookies or agents which represented us in mundane stuff. Imagine if it knew you so well it could schedule dates, or negotiate a salary on your behalf.

What if the chatbot asked questions and created a resume for me?

What if the bot emails me to ask the question "What are you working on?"

What's new?

What have you worked on these past few days?

And use the answers to create a constantly updated resume.

How can I see one of these in action?

I'm not associated with them at all, so YMMV. I guess the only way is to create one yourself, which is a bit of a pain as I wrote above. Here is my bot https://imgur.com/a/GRMUlTB I'm sure it be possible to get a better result than me though.

Chatbots are accessible publicly once created. You can view and interact with them here at https://presbot.com/network/

Looks fun, I'll have a try later today.

BTW : Create a free personal chatbot in a breeze, and share it's link on your resume! -> its link?

fixed, thank you.

And someone downvoted me for helping fix a typo. Hacker news, much love.

Repped

> hi

Looks like I have no information on K.'s' professional achievements

> oh really?

Presbot 1:47 AM

Hmm… no clue. I'll try to ask my bot buddy Google Assistant to see if it knows.

I pulled some results from Wikipedia for you:

- 70/20/10 model (learning and development)

- List of songs and yells of the University of Trinity College

- O RLY?

- Really Really Free Market

- Really Really Happy

Yeah, it's not a great conversationalist just yet, but you'll see it'll get better with time. Conversations, State and Dialogue management are on my roadmap. Thanks for sharing.

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